2018 Winter Olympics Close With Theater, Hope Detente Will Last

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The 2018 Winter Olympics closed Sunday with a spectacular display of fire, ice and gravity defying dancers. Athletes streamed from the stands for a rollicking dance party that blended traditional and rock music, including American skiing superstar Lindsey Vonn who led a conga line.

The dance party was an unscripted finish to the Olympics, as much a show of athletic prowess as political theater, which saw unusual cooperation between the North and South. A joint Koreas team marched and in some cases competed together, giving hope to a troubled world.

"With your joint march you have shared your faith in a peaceful future with all of us," International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said during the closing ceremony. "You have shown our sport brings people together in our very fragile world. You have shown how sport builds bridges."

There were signs that government leaders were thawing as well, though Washington is watching warily to see whether the detente achieved through the Olympics continues. It fits the longtime goals of the South's president, Moon Jae-in, who has advocated engagement with Kim Jong Un's Pyongyang regime. However, North Korea made clear it is not interested in face-to-face talks with [the United States] even after 100 years or 200 years."

"This is neither an empty talk nor any threat," North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, known for its invective toward the United States and the Seoul government, said hours before the Olympics closed. "The U.S. will have to pay dearly for stupid and wild vituperation."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, with Ivanka Trump on her South Korea Olympic trip, issued a written statement to that effect after the closing ceremony.

"We will see if Pyongyang's message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization," she said. "In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea's nuclear and missile programs are a dead end."

The remote plateau of northeastern South Korea is not quite out of the spotlight. The Paralympic Games, held immediately after the Olympics using the same facilities, will be staged from March 9 to 18, although those games will have both a lower profile and attendance.

The United States finished fourth in the medal count with 23 total medals — nine of them gold, eight of them silver and six of them bronze.

Norway dominated the medal count with 39 total, 14 each of gold and silver medals. Germany had 31 medals and Canada had 29.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Fireworks explode over the Olympic flame during the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)